Nintendo Announce Global 3DS Price Drop, Free Games For Existing Owners

Nintendo Have Announced they are dropping the price of the Nintendo 3DS from 12th August. The USA will see a price frop from $249.99 to $169.99. The European Price Cut will be around a third, with Nintendo saying its down to retailers to determine the final price cut.

For current Nintendo 3DS Owners, and people who will get the device up until 23.59 PM (CET) 11th August, will be entitled to free games under an "Ambassador Program". This program will be in 2 stages:

Starting from 1st September, Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games for free before they are available to the general public. these games include Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda.

Before the End of 2011, Ambassadors will get 10 free Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. these include Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be exclusive to Ambassadors and Nintendo has no plans to release these games to the general public.

Nintendo has also announced that the 3DS has sold over 830,000 in the USA. they say the need to reduce the price of the 3DS is to help accelerate the adoption of the hardware, but the timing and the amount of the reduction is unprecedented in Nintendo's history.

Sources: Nintendo USA and Nintendo UK.
EU Price info From Eurogamer